Life-Bending: The undiscovered art
by JayStarr1082
Summary: Post-war, Katara and Aang are on vacation on a secluded Fire Nation island, at the very edge of the known world. The two discover a secret race of benders from far away. There are more elements than the ones Aang was taught to master.
1. Chapter 1

The sun rises in the early morning. Light shines through Aang's windows. He and Katara had been on vacation on a fire nation island, far away from the capital. He was supposed to calm down and relax himself here, but instead, he stayed up all night meditating.

Katara, two rooms over, yawned and walked into the teenaged avatar's bedroom, slightly confused by his cross-legged pose so early in the morning.

"Aang, are you meditating again?" Katara inquired. "It's, like, 6 in the morning. You should get some sleep."

"No. I can feel something coming, something evil. And I don't know what."

"You've been saying that for weeks, honey," Katara groaned, "Whatever it is isn't coming for you yet."

"But it's so close, Katara, I can feel it." Katara knelt beside her boyfriend and sighed.

"We've been on vacation for the last week and a half," she began, "and all I ever hear from you is death and doom. The Fire Lord is defeated, Aang! You can sleep without fear of assassination again."

Aang looked in her hurt eyes and got up.

"You're right, Katara. I should be more relaxed." He kissed her cheek. "Let's go get some food."

Half way to the market, Aang realized Katara was avoiding eye contact. He stopped in front of her and turned around.

"Look, I know I've been annoying these last few weeks," Aang confessed, "I'm sorry if I upset you." Suddenly, her eyes shot up. Not to him, but to something behind him. Her eyebrows furrowed, then her eyes widened and she pointed.

"Watch out!" she yelled as she grabbed Aang and jumped into a nearby bush.

Aang airbender-backflipped back up and readied himself. As he looked on for a potential threat, he found nothing but a wide, empty hole. He looked in the other direction to see an rooted tree the length of appa sitting 20 feet from them.

"What just happened?" Aang asked. Katara opens her mouth, but before she can say anything, a 6-foot, dark-skinned man blurs out of the hole and gets into a horse stance.

He wears a green, sleeveless shirt and brown shorts that cover the knee. His hair is in short dreadlocks, and from the avatar's angle, he had what looked like an intricate, black tattoo covering both arms.

The three stared at each other in silence, all waiting for each other to strike first. The man loosens his stance and looks Aang dead in the eyes.

"We come in peace," Aang begins, "don't attack us, and we won't hurt you." The man laughs in a thick accent.

"What makes you think you can hurt me?" He grunts. Aang lowers his hands. "I'm the avatar," He says, shocked, "Where have you been all last year?"

The man's orange eyes grow wide and his lips quiver. "Avatar?" he whispers, "but... how? The avatar cycle was finished years ago." Katara puts her hands on her hips. "Seriously, where were you last year? Aang was frozen in a block of ice, but I accidentally freed him, and -"

"Frozen in ice?" The guy gasps, "How did you manage to do that without dying?"

Aang walked towards him now with the slightest hint of a grin. "I'm the avatar. I can control all four elements, remember?"

"Four? There are four elements?"

"Well, I guess there could be more, but I only know the four. Water, earth, fire, air. Primarily Air, but the others as well."

"You have the ability to bend air?"

"Yeah," Aang chuckles, wondering if this guy was serious.

"And earth? I mean, how does that even work? What qualifies as 'earth', anyway? Like, any thing with rocks in it?"

Katara looks at Aang with a concerned expression. "Is he new or something?"

"New to what? Life?"

"I don't know if we can trust this guy. He seems pretty sketchy."

"Well, he's not from around here."

"But then where's he from? The spirit world?"

"Not everyone has a much of a formal education as us, Katara. Maybe he grew up in a small, secluded town away from benders."

"I think he's playing du- OH MY RAAVA!"

"What?" Aang says before looking to see a floating tree behind him.

A floating tree behind him.

A floating tree.

It took a bit of time to register, but when it did, Aang screamed like a little girl and jumped backwards 20 feet.

The man looked at their reactions and slowly lowered the tree to the ground with his left hand.

Katara and Aang stood in shell shock as the man put his hands up defensively. They stood in very awkward silence for some time before the man spoke.

"Oh, uh, I'm a life-bender, in case you didn't know," he trails off, holding the last syllable like a fermata, before letting it fade into an even more awkward silence.

"Yeah..." he begins, before clapping his hands together, "so, this is probably something you're unfamiliar with," he chuckles. "Let's start over. Hi, I'm Kento. And I can bend living things."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I got 2 follows and a review. That's a start. I need to know if this series is a good/interesting one, so let me know what you think of it. Even if you hate it.**

**Anyway, enjoy!**

_I'm Kento. And I can bend living_ _things._

Aang shook his head, "You can't bend us," he yelled in disbelief, "that's impossible."

"Well, not all living things can be bent," Kento explained, "some, like humans, are too strong-willed and refuse to respond to it." Katara nodded slowly, beginning to understand the concept. "But this tree?" Kento says, bending it back to its position in the forest, "It has no will at all, and will respond to even the slightest bending."

"Cool, let me try!" Aang yelled, getting into position. He concentrated on the tree, and attempted to lift it. It didn't move.

"You can't bend trees?" Kento inquired, "because the avatar I know bends all 3 elements, including life."

"Which avatar are you talking about?" Aang asked, "For as long as I've known, the -"

"Look, this is all very difficult for any of us to process," Kento cuts him off, "so let's get to know each other over a warm meal."

"Okay," Aang agrees, "there's a market just down the street from here."

The three travel down the path in silence, when Kento stops and frowns.

"What's wrong?" Katara asks, right before Kento uproots two trees and bends them together into a shield. A loud clap can be heard from behind the trees, as the tree's shadow mysteriously disappears. Kento motions for Katara and Aang to get down and defend themselves. Katara bends the water out of a patch of grass and makes a protective bubble while Aang bends out a chunk of earth for the two of them to fit in. Katara collects the grass water and forms it into a wall of ice before jumping into the hole with Aang.

Kento stares in awe of the benders before directing his attention back to the task at hand. By the time he turns around to his wall of trees, a dark figure had appeared in front of him. Instantly he recognizes the figure and breaks into a smile.

"Kim!" He yells, trapping the figure in a hug. The figure discards her collected shadows and hugs back. "It's cool, guys, she's with me."

Aang bends him and Katara out of their hole and look at the girl standing before them. She had a similar outfit, with a more form-fitting sleeveless shirt and longer shorts. Her hair was knotted into a single, long braid, and she had two skunk-like light brown highlights. She was probably 4 inches shorter than Katara, much shorter than Kento. She had a mildly perky air about her, but she didn't appear innocent or naive in any way.

"Guys, this is Kim, my soon-to-be wife. Kim, these are my friends, Katara and Aang."

"Hey, Kim," The avatar waved to her with a wide smile.

"Hey," Kim replied, then whispered to Kento, "where are these people from?"

"I dunno," Kento says, "but they're awesome. Katara can bend water, and Aang bends air! And earth!"

"What?" Kim shied in disbelief, "Nobody bends air! That's impossible,"

"Aang, show her." Kento giggles. Aang, without question, bends a small sphere of air in his hand with a large grin. Kim stares wide-eyed, and begins to speak, when Kento asks Aang to do fire bending. He proceeds to produce fireballs, then takes some of Katara's grass water, and freeze it into a ball of ice. He bends out a ball of dirt, and juggles the four elements between hands and one foot.

"That's incredible, isn't it?"Kento turns to Kim, who grabs him by his shirt and pulls him aside.

"Kento, we should go."

"Why?"

"That's not our avatar, Kent. We don't want anything to do with any avatar anymore, okay?"

"Whose avatar is it, then?"

"It doesn't matter. We have to leave."

"But why though? They seem friendly -"

"No!" Kim shouts, forgetting the 'dangerous' avatar in question was well within earshot. Aang drops the elemental spheres in shock. "They have abilities well beyond ours, and unbelievable control over them. Anger these people, and we'll be killed instantly!"

"Kim..."

"No!" She yelled again, "I will not lose the man I love to curiosity and strangers!"

"Excuse me?" Katara butt in, "We just saved our people, miss Kim. You happened to run into the good guys, even on what used to be enemy territory."

"Enemy?" Kim asked, both intrigued and offended, "How are we your enemies?"

"No one is our enemy now, guys," Aang interjects, "let's make peace, not war."

"Our people have tried making peace with neighboring nations for centuries," Kento explains, "and every time we do, someone ends up getting hurt."

"We've lost far too many of our people to outsiders, Avatar," Kim spits out, "I don't trust any one person incapable of proving himself."

"Then let us," Aang pleads, "allow us to prove ourselves. I haven't hurt anyone or anything for 101 years, and I don't intend to start now." Kim faces Kento with an adamant frown, but he ignores her and motions for the avatar to come closer.

"This kid is fine. Okay? Let's show him some hospitality." Kim shrugs and looks away.

"So..." Katara begins, trying to break the tension, "where did you guys come from?"

"I don't really know," Kento says, "I followed the root system here from underground. I guess I'll just follow that back to my homeland." He begins digging a hole using the wood of a chopped tree.

"How come we've never heard of your homeland?" Aang says, bending an earth hole to make the process easier, "Or any of the three elements you guys know of?"

"What are those three elements, anyway?" Katara cuts in. Kento raises his hand to calm them down.

"Our people have been nomadic since the beginning of our existence, avatar. Our lion turtle is constantly searching for other lion turtles, so we've encountered quite a few different nations. Katara, I say three elements, but I don't know what the third is. The first one, obviously, is life bending. The second is light bending, as demonstrated by Kim." He motions to Kim, and Kim absorbs sunlight and condenses it into a blindingly bright ball of white light. Katara and Aang cover their eyes, and are about to tell Kim to stop, when Kim separates the light, and projects it all over the cave, creating a rainbow. Katara gasps at the beauty. Kim fights a smile, then discards the light, dispersing it into the air.

"That's incredible," Aang says, "But how does that help you in a battle?"

"Like this."

Before Aang knew it, the room fell to complete darkness. Then, out of nowhere, rapid flashes of painfully bright light shone throughout the room. Aang and Katara groaned in pain. Kento whispered in Kim's ear, and Kim stopped. Aang looked up to discover he was utterly blind.

"Ah! I can't see!" He panicked, "Why can't I see?"

"It's temporary," Kim informs, "but very effective, no?" Kento shakes his head and continues digging.

As Aang slowly regained his vision, Katara walked towards him and began whispering to him.

"Do you have any idea where we're going?" Katara said, "How do we know we can trust these people?"

"We don't, Katara. But I doubt they came here to destroy the avatar."

"But you said you felt evil coming, Aang."

"I don't feel it anymore. You said it yourself, there's no reason to fear assassination."

"Aang, these are total strangers."

"And to them, _we're_ total strangers," Aang insisted, "If there was any doubt in my mind that they have nothing but good intentions, I wouldn't have come." As he finished that sentence, Kento put his hands up, signaling for the avatar to stop. He put his hands to the roots and focused.

"What's he doing?" Whispered Aang.

"He's feeling for our relative position, to see how far away the lion turtle is." Kim sighed. "One of the perks of life-bending."

Kento disconnected and backed up. "He's right above us," He announces, "But there's water in the way. Do you think you could bend us to the surface, Katara?" She nodded. Aang takes out a chunk of earth, allowing seawater to gush in. Katara bends them a bubble and floats them up to the surface. Aang closes the earth hole, then bends a raft of ice. He and Katara float them to the edge of the lion turtle and walk on. Examining the terrain, Aang saw no signs of human life. The place was a rampant jungle.

"Where's your home? Is it far?"

"This is our home," Kento says warmly, "the jungle is our home." With that, he bends a few jungle trees into a leaf hammock, bends a couple of fruits from nearby trees, and makes a makeshift table from some nearby saplings. He and Kim sit and rest in the roomy hammock, munching on the bananas and pineapples. Kento waves to Aang and Katara, inviting them onto the hammock. Aang runs over there, jumps on the hammock, and reaches for a berry. A hungry Katara loosens her hair ties and rolls onto the hammock, relaxed.

"See? Harmless." Kento says. "If the earth bending avatar wanted to kill us, he would've done it in that cave. Crushed us with the dirt. We never would've seen it coming."

"Yeah," Aang agrees, "And you guys could've blinded us, then trapped us between tree roots until we suffocated."

"But we didn't," Kim says dryly.

"And neither did we," Katara rebutted. The two girls stare at each other in silence, daring each other to strike. Kento leans into Aang's ear and whispers something. Aang laughs, then whispers something back.

"What's so funny?" Katara asks, feeling offended.

"Nothing," Kento chuckles, "We're thinking of new bending abilities."

"My favorite is truth-bending." Aang says. "Kento came up with glass bending."

"I think time-bending would be epic." Kento says. Kim smiles.

"Avatar, it's impossible to be mad at you."


End file.
